She looked down at the socks in the older woman’s hand. “So what are you going to do to those?”

            “Ah…yes.” Azura seemed to suddenly remember she was holding them. “I’m going to show you how to enchant them.”

            Alice looked up, doubtfully, at the rivers of colourful thread running parallel with the ceiling.

            “Now,” Azura continued, “We decide what to make the object do. Normally the socks and hats I enchant, warm the owner on a cold day. We do tickling socks once in a while, but they’re not nearly as popular for some reason.”

            “Can’t imagine why,” Alice murmured.

            “I simply concentrate on the spell I want…”

            Alice gasped as two light orange threads overhead started to glow more brightly then the others.

            “And these ones call to me.” Azura reached up and plucked the threads from the air, they trailed after her hand like a spider’s web as she brought them downwards, looping them around the two socks. “Now,” she slipped the sock over one hand, “I always test to make sure this particular thread of magic isn’t too much. We want foot warming socks, not foot burning.” She pulled her hand out quickly. “Ouch.”

            Alice watched in fascination as the other woman reached up again, this time towards a pair of brightly glowing blue threads. She brought them down the same way she had done with the orange and looped them around the socks. “That should bring the temperature down.” She offered one of the socks to Alice, who took it tentatively.

“Go ahead and try it on your hand.”

            Alice slipped the fuzzy wool sock over her right hand.   At first nothing happened, and then slowly she became aware of a slight warming sensation at her finger tips, it spread slowly over her hand and onto her wrist.   

“Oh,” she gasped, “That feels nice!  It’s like a little electric blanket.”

            “Keep them, they’re yours. They’re great on a cold night.”

            “Wow.” She took the other sock reverently. “Thanks.”

            Azura gave her a wide smile. “No need to thank me, dear. After all, all of this is yours.” She gestured to the office around them.

            That would take some getting used to. It was hard to believe. Alice tucked the socks in her jacket pocket.

“Can I see what other sort of stuff you enchant? What’s in the other boxes?”

            Azura opened a few of the boxes on the shelves for her to peek into.  The first one was a box of black makeup compacts, when she flipped one of them open there was a mirror inside and pressed foundation in the bottom.

            “Makeup?”

            “Yes, they’re quite popular among the young Witches. We enchant the mirror to comment on the user. Mostly they’re very complimentary, but I’ve had a few tell me I need a wrinkle cream.”

            “Hardly.” Alice looked at the woman’s smooth face.

Azura gave her a grateful smile and gestured to the next box. “These should be shoes, which I enchant with a spell so that one size fits all, then we make a second pattern and they become one of our most popular items - our “dancing shoes”.”

            “You can dance if you wear them?” she said in awe. “Any sort of dance?”

            Azura shrugged. “Almost any. I enchant it with hip hop, salsa, ballroom, ballet, tango and an Irish jig. That seems to be enough for most people.” The next box held packages of pencils and erasers. Alice remembered seeing them on the shelves in the store.

“And what do you enchant these to do?”

            “Talking pencils and musical erasers for pranks,” Azura explained. “They’re very popular with magical students.”

            “Magical….as in, schools for magic?” said Alice, incredulously.

            “Oh yes, there are a few of them in every large town or city. Well hidden, of course. The students are some of our best customers.” A small white box was next.  It held gold rings, heavy enough to look real.

“Vanishing rings.” Azura smirked. “Very popular with those who don’t wish to be seen.”

                        “Okay. Hey, what do you use those bottles for?” She pointed at the tall set of shelves in the corner behind the desk. Amid an assortment of books and containers of all shapes and sizes there was a row of tall glass bottles with fat bottoms and curving skinny necks. Each one was topped by a cork, and she almost expected to see a genie floating around, trapped behind the glass.

            “Those are for the potions we make. Here, I’ll show you.” Azura made her way around the desk and took one of the bottles down. She handed it to Alice and turned to retrieve a tall glass pitcher filled with water from the lower shelf. “Uncork the bottle and place it on the desk top, please.”

            The cork popped out with a quiet “thock” and Alice placed the bottle carefully on the desk.  Azura tipped the pitcher over the bottle, pouring a stream of clear water, filling it nearly to the brim. She set the pitcher down and turned to Alice.

“Now, depending on what we’d like the potion to do, we choose our threads. This time I think I’ll create one of our “perfect excuses” potions. It helps create the best excuse possible for any situation, guaranteed to get you out of work, school, blind dates and other unpleasant duties.” She winked.

“First I want to create the base of the potion, a flash of inspiration.”           

A white thread amongst the tangle of magic above suddenly glowed more brightly, and Azura reached up and plucked it from mid-air, bringing it down to waist height. “Next we need a mindset, a tone, an air of truth to speech.”

A blue thread near Alice’s left ear flashed brightly, and the other woman reached over and plucked it up, making her flinch to one side.  Azura brought her hand down and the thread trailed after her fingers. She wound it around the white thread until the two were wrapped tightly together, making a glowing pattern of bright blue and white. Next, Azura lifted the pattern up and eased the end into the glass bottle, lowering it so it curled like a miniature cobra down into the bottom of the glass. As it filled the container Alice could see that the contents were beginning to turn a faint shade of blue.  Azura took the cork from the desk top and closed the bottle. 

“Done. Now if you were to need an excuse for skipping school or not coming into work, you would simply take a sip of the potion and then call your teacher or boss and hey, presto! Instant excuse.”

            “And it always works to get you out of whatever it is?”

            “Always.”

            “So what keeps people from using it all the time? I mean, people would never go to work at all!”

            “Well if someone continued to call in sick all the time they would get fired anyways.  It’s more of a novelty than anything.  People use it as a joke.  Most of what we carry is novelty objects. We don’t have anything really expensive and there aren’t any intricate spells on anything.”

            “Oh.” Alice picked up the potion, which had settled into a vibrant indigo color. “And it only takes one sip? How long does it last?”

            “The spell unravels and wears off the water after several weeks, but people have usually used it up by then.”

            Alice put the bottle back down on the desk as Azura motioned towards the staircase at the back of the room. “You must be exhausted. Let’s take your suitcases upstairs and I’ll show you your new suite.”

            Alice felt both excited and tired at the prospect of the new suite. The constant exposure to new and strange things had been pretty draining.

            “You just have the three suitcases?” Azura picked up the case she’d been carrying. “That’s everything?”

            “That’s it,” Alice admitted. “I don’t have any furniture.” She hesitated, and then shrugged. She was going to be working with this woman, she would find out sooner or later anyways. “…except a desk, which my ex has.”

            Azura didn’t ask why Jason would have her desk. “Hm… did you want to get it back?”

            She winced. “I...it’s such a recent thing, I didn’t…want to see him.”

            “Ah, I see.” Azura turned and headed for the stairs. “Perhaps we will see about getting your desk back in the next couple of weeks. If you still want it.”

            Alice lugged her suitcases up the stairs, picturing Azura Grey storming into Jason’s house and demanding the furniture out from under him. Somehow it wasn’t that hard to imagine.

            “However, in the meantime…” Azura continued. They had reached a door at the top of the staircase that led down a narrow hallway with two more closed doors. When they came to the second door, Azura opened it and finished her sentence. “…It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Alice looked around in amazement. The suite was done in the same earthen tones as the shop downstairs, but that’s where the similarities ended. Ruby’s suite was a jumble of life and colour. Everything seemed to be mismatched, but still work together somehow.  Several bronze candle sticks graced the center of the kitchen table, and copper coloured bowls of fruit sat on the counter. At one point Ruby had obviously hand painted the large, swirling designs on the far wall, and had even painted across the bedroom door, making it appear to blend into the mural. There were no curtains, only large silk scarves pinned up with clothing pegs. The light was cast over the room by a black, iron chandelier. It curled dramatically and the prongs at the end were draped with shining beads of every color.  She gaped at the number of clocks on the wall. There had to be ten or fifteen, in all different colors, shapes and sizes, each one was set to a different time for a different country.  There even a huge old grandfather that stood regally alone in one corner and Alice somehow knew this one was the current time in Victoria. In the kitchen, a number of paintings showed colourful outlines of fish, and when Azura noticed her looking at them the woman said wistfully, “Ah, fish painting. Ruby experimented with that for a while.”     She wrinkled her nose, “Not one of my favourite phases - too smelly. Paintbrushes are so much more practical.” Alice blinked at her, but she was distracted from further comment when she spotted the large player piano in the far corner of the living room.

            “Wow, did Aunt Ruby play the piano?”

            “Certainly not. She just saw that thing at a yard sale in Bristol one year and insisted on buying it. Impossible thing wouldn’t even fit through the door.”

            “How did it get in here then?” Alice asked eyes wide.

            “You don’t want to know.”

Apparently Ruby had collected strange things everywhere she went, because there were a great deal of odd things, including a cookie jar shaped like Elvis, a huge box of fortune cookies, a golden spittoon, a number of large, serious looking books written in Japanese, and a telephone shaped like a duck.  Several stray threads of magic floated above their heads, but not nearly as many as the shop had. Azura showed her the bedroom, which housed a comfortable looking double bed with a bright patchwork quilt.

            “Did Aunt Ruby make this?” Alice ran one fingertip over the soft surface. Azura smiled fondly and her eyes misted over. Alice wondered in horror if she were about to cry.

“She did. She spent so much time on this quilt. She loved it, said it was the most relaxing thing in the world. She made me one too.” She rubbed a corner of the quilt between her fingers and sighed, then straightened her shoulders. “I’m sorry, dear. Here I’m getting all sentimental on you. You relax and enjoy yourself. Unpack. There’s a shelf full of books in the spare room, and the TV gets a few channels.”  

Azura checked her left wrist, which didn’t seem to have a watch on it. “It’s only four, but if you get hungry there is plenty of food in the cupboards and fridge. Ruby didn’t leave much in there, but I anticipated you would be much too busy the first couple days to shop, so I’ve stocked it up well.”

            Alice was grateful at the gesture. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

            Azura nodded. “Of course.  Now, just make yourself at home. Try to relax and get a good sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow.”

            “What will we do?” Alice wanted to know.

            “I’ll be teaching you the basics. Where we get our product from, how to order, what we usually sell and things we do for special orders., I’ll open the store for a few hours and you can watch me deal with some customers. Do you know how to work a till?”

            “Yes,” Alice said. “I worked as a grocery store cashier for a couple weekends as job experience in grade twelve.” She didn’t add that it had been mind-numbingly dull.

            “Shouldn’t be a problem for you then. There’s nothing magic about the till. I’ll teach you some basic magic tomorrow though. I was going to hold off and start really slow, but you seem to have a remarkable knack for it.”

            Alice felt a burst of excitement and pride. “Really?”

            “You really do. I think we’ll start with showing you how to enchant most of what we have in the store, then you can learn to manipulate the patterns….” Azura mused, hand on her chin. “Hm…I’ll stop rambling on and let you settle in. I’m just beside you through that door there.  If you need me, don’t hesitate to knock.”

            “Are you…” Alice hesitated. “Is there another suite there, or just a room?”

            “Your Aunt built me a lovely little suite since I always traveled with her. It’s small, but decorated very nicely.”

            “It has a kitchen?”

            “Oh yes,” Azura said.

            Alice paused. “Well…did you ever, maybe…have breakfast with Aunt Ruby in the mornings sometimes?”

            Azura smiled. “I did actually, quite often.”

            “Would you want to do the same thing? I mean…I’ve never lived on my own before.  It seems like it might be kind of lonely.” She felt silly until a smile lit the other woman’s face.

            “Alice, I would love that. I’m glad you asked.” She surprised Alice by suddenly clasping one of her hands in both her own. “To be honest with you. I’m glad you’re….the way you are. When I heard it would be a young woman inheriting the shop, a teenager in fact, I was scared you would be a stuck up, spoiled little thing like most of them are these days.”

            “And I’m not?” Alice asked nervously.

            When Azura laughed this time she threw back her head and the merry sound filled the bedroom. She clasped Alice’s hand a little firmer. “You have positively been a delight. I look forward to breakfast with you tomorrow. Goodnight dear.”

            “Goodnight,” Alice murmured shyly, and the other woman exited her bedroom with a wave of one long-fingered hand. She felt exhausted the moment Azura closed the door behind her, and sat down on the bed to take her socks and shoes off. The throw rug felt very nice on her bare feet.

“Oh, this is comfortable.” She flopped onto her back and stretched her hands to the corners of the bed, feeling the slight bumps in the material as her arms ran over the squares of fabric.

After a few minutes Alice got up and wandered back out into the apartment. The bathroom was very old looking, with patterned tile and an old fashioned claw foot tub, and when Alice tried to wash her hands in the sink the hot water tap came off in her hand. “Oops.” She looked around nervously, as if the ghost of her Aunt Ruby might be looking on disapprovingly. Hastily she shoved the tap back on and went down the hall to the living room.

            Two dark blue sofas sat side by side, having reached the level of comfortable squishiness that only the very oldest couches could achieve. Alice plunked down on one and flipped through the seven channels on the TV, her feet nicely warmed by the magic socks that Azura had given her.   Magic socks - that was something else. Even better, she was magic. And Azura had said she had a knack for it! When had anyone ever said that about her? She had been an average student, but nobody bragged about straight B’s. She was no beauty queen either. She had always been “okay” at sports; people were friendly to her, but she wasn’t hugely popular. She had pretty much always cruised along in the average lane. But here was something she had a knack for.

            “This,” Alice said to no one in particular, “Is heaven. If this entire day has been a dream, then I don’t want to wake up at all.”